Does anyone know if there is any way to get our voice mail messages via some type of programable interface such as a web service or similar? I would like to write some apps that can grab the vm and present it in a different interface (home automation stuff).

If there isn't one already, does anyone know of any plans to create one?

Last Summer I put together a Java app that did the necessary HTTPS negotiation to configure your Vonage account programmatically. I believe the program configured call forwarding.

The hard part is done -- establishing an HTTPS session with Vonage and logging into your account.

Retrieving voice mail messages should be easy but it will require some patience to figure out the particular URL address of the voice mail pages and then parse the HTTP output of Vonage's site to pick out the new message links.

Vonage could certainly make this easier with an XML-based service but you can parse the HTML and do it with pretty basic Java and some patience.

However -- unlike an XML-based service, if Vonage makes significant changes to their voice mail pages, you'll have to adapt the parsing logic.

If anyone is interested in the effort, the base of what you need is available for download on DSL Reports.

I forgot to mention that this is quite old code and I don't know if it still works. I don't think Vonage has changed their web site but if they have, it may need tweaking to work properly. It should still login and get a session but no guarantees that it actually still configures call forwarding.

If it doesn't work, I can offer help getting it working again. Just post a reply or send me a private message here.

There didn't seem to be much interest in such a utility but perhaps those on this site will have more curiosity than those who frequent DSL Reports.

I'm working on what you're talking about. It will be the 2.0 release. The big problem is that Vonage offers no webservice or APIs, so if their web site changes/pages get renamed, etc. that can cause changes to the app.

The voicemail indicator works off the voice mail that goes to your server (configured on the Vonage control panel)

Your app definitely sounds cool... I'm going to take a look at it. But the problem I'd love to solve is a little different.

I want to be able to programmatically change the number my Vonage service fwd's calls to for use in this scenario:

I'm on the road with my cell phone which has nationwide service, but charges me for calls to Canada. I'd love to be able to call into my Vonage number, and somehow make it dial back out to a number of my choosing (which I fully expect to cout towards my minutes, that's not a problem). This way, i can make free calls to Canada from my cell phone because in reality, the call is routed from the cell to my Vonage number and then over to Canada.

Using something like what you've written, you could (if you had it), use your cell phone to browse to a page and enter the Canadian phone number you want to call in it. And then click submit and it would programmatically change your Vonage account to fwd all calls there. Then you just call your Vonage number and voila, you're connected to Canada for free.

But the drawback is that you need a web browser on your phone or PDA.

It'd be great if Vonage added an option to your voicemail menu which was "Make an outbound call".... perhaps I'll drop a note in their suggestion box.